Tomorrow (11/11/11) is Lockdown!!!! Anyone else?

[Shayna]

Quote:
I think using a rock or water bottle would work great, I will try that next time as long as I don't have a full incubator. (wishful thinking)
I also use the LG and it works really well with the PC fan we added to it. It was very simple too. In my huge old house we have temp fluctuations to deal with also, and I found that putting my incubator in an old drawer that wasn't being used in anything helped hold the temp with a towel draped over it.

 

[teamsunbelt]

Quote:
I think using a rock or water bottle would work great, I will try that next time as long as I don't have a full incubator. (wishful thinking)
I also use the LG and it works really well with the PC fan we added to it. It was very simple too. In my huge old house we have temp fluctuations to deal with also, and I found that putting my incubator in an old drawer that wasn't being used in anything helped hold the temp with a towel draped over it.

I would like to see how you added the fan. Not sure how all the holes will line up. A full incubator works best for holding heat too, I would believe.

OH Yeah, just checked, got a pip!

 

[GonzoChickenLady]

I'm a frustrated crybaby. My six eggs were all wiggling today and then I noticed the water was getting really low in the trough. Day 20 lockdown dilemma. I heated some distilled water to 99.5 degrees and quickly refilled the troughs. The heat came back up to 99.8 within 15 minutes. Agonizing decision but I didn't want them to get stuck. The wiggling continued for awhile
and then stopped for a few hours. I started freaking out & wondering if I killed them all. Now I see a couple of eggs wiggling again. Thank gosh. But I'm still worried. One of them has been wiggling since day 19 and I wonder why it hasn't pipped.

I am hopeful that they haven't pipped yet bc it's only day 20 & I've kept the temp pretty low. It gets down to 99.0 at night. Haven't figured out how to make my home furnace stay on all night.

Sigh. I will tell you that I'm not going to "intervene" no matter what. I am half-convinced that my base model LG incubator is crappy and I should just spend the money on a good one for future hatches.

On a positive note I have the brooder all set up with a 250 W infrared lamp. Ive been running it in the family room next to the incubator. I had to make 2 trips to home depot to get the right clamp light. I filled my brooder box with the shavings I got at the feed store and realized they were the same consistency as sawdust. Boo!! They look exactly like the feed. I will use them for something else. I layered brown paper bags and old towels in a lasagna method, like five deep. That should hold me for awhile. I will just peel away the towels one by one when they get dirty. Poop washes out after all.

Ok, so anyone out there know what it means when an egg wobbles for 2 days and then stops at day 20?

 

[anderson8505]

aaaaaaaaacK... reading these last posts is adding to my anxiety! I have 4 Iowa Blues set to hatch on Wednesday. I keep looking in the window, putting my ear up to the hatcher.... My first hatching attempt that has gone this far.... I messed up the first incubation.

 

[Shayna]

Quote:
Oh my gosh!!! I was so jealous that you have a pip when I've checked my incubator like 500 times today. Then I went over to it with my phone to try to get a couple pics of my fan to give you an idea how my husband put it in and I heard a cheep! I looked down and there's a tiny pip at the top!!!!!

Ok well now that i've gotten that excitment out of my system.... I'll have a couple pics for you posted on here so you can see how we did the fan.

 

[Shayna]

Quote:
Awww I know exactly how you feel, but try to stay calm. I freak out too, but keep in mind that these babies got to rest. They'll be rocking and rolling and then they'll sleep and gain strength for the big hatch. day 21 is hatch day, and while they sometimes hatch early, don't worry if they don't. Some can even come a day or two late, especially if your thermometer is off at all and they ran a bit cool.
It sounds like everything is going great, and even if your temp dropped for 15 mins, that's not going to hurt a thing. I've had much worse fluctuations and my babies are still alive. I do have a large syringe that I attached a tube to so I can squirt water in without opening the incubator much, but others do it just the same as you did with no issues. There are lots of us using LGs and many people have great luck with them too, so try to take some breaths and wait for your new babies!!

To answer your question, I think your babies are less active on day 20 because they are resting up for the big break out and because they start running low on room the more they grow.

I got my brooder ready too today. I have some older babies, and I figured out that I can put an aquarium within that brooder and position the lamp above one end of it. Worked out pretty well! The end with the lamp was running 94 degrees last I checked.

 

[GonzoChickenLady]

Thanks Shayna, you're the best!!! Dang, I wish I'd configured a syringe like you did. I really hope they are just resting. I wanna Pip so baaaaadddd. My husband is seriously concerned about me, sitting in front of the incubator like a nut job.

Oh, and regarding the hawk. It was just bad luck. My six year old was supervising the daily walk from the covered run to the coop at sundown. I was outside, just around the corner. It was a juvenile Coopers hawk who scared a bunch of doves from our pine tree and then saw our Silkies and dive bombed them. He didn't see my daughter because she was adding fresh hay to the coop, like five feet away. It was horrible. She's still traumatized. We were freaks about supervising those chickens.

I am building a new gigantic run that will enclose the coop and give us hundreds of square feet to go in and interact with these new chickens.

Anyway, sorry for being such a basket case. Thanks for being so nice!! I'm glad you got a pip!!!!

 

[Shayna]

Here are pics I took to try to show the fan, which was not easy since I cannot open my incubator! My husband screwed in the pc fan below the vent plug, which you can see the side of the fan through my incubator window in this picture: (sorry these are the best pics I could get at the moment)

The cords from the fan run out the incubator vent, and the plug still fits in there fine. This shows how the cords come out the plug.

The fan is wired to an AC adapter that plugs into the wall.

Oh, and here's the egg with the pip, although the pip is so tiny it's hard to see in the picture.

 

[Shayna]

Quote:
I've been a little crazy guarding my incubator all day too!

My husband is more of a computer guy than a chicken guy, so he doesn't understand either.

So sad about your silkies, but they love to be out in the grass so much, it wouldn't be fair to keep them in a pen forever. It sounds like you're doing great with their eggs though so hopefully you'll have some babies any time now!

The syringe idea was something I read about on here, and it works pretty well.

Hatching is sooo stressful, I pace and watch and pace and watch constantly. It's so nice to have these hatch threads to find others that are just as excited and anxious. Happy hatching!

 

[makybe]

I thought I would add to your post.
So far I have 14 hatch, 3 partially zipped and I can not see any pips from the remaining 5.
Here is hoping.

Good luck to everyone.